Quantum Leap: Contratempos

Season one was okay with some decent story lines ... but the writers have obviously run out of story ideas and by episode 2, season 2 they have already set it up to be "just another soap opera". If your main characters have to have a dysfunctional love life in order to be interesting, they don't have much 'character'. The first series avoided being just about moronic love lives by creating story lines with intelligible plots. It appears this new series is going to be more about what's happening in the present at home and less about what's happening in the 'leap' and its' impact on the world. Instead of being a cool sci-fi series with a creative "what-if" perspective ... it's becoming just another show about people who suck at relationships ... but these idiots are supposed to be intelligent so they get to do science stuff while acting like middle school morons.

I didn't watch much of the original Quantum Leap growing up, but I knew it was a fairly well-liked series and lasted as long as it had because of its accessible storytelling with universal themes, charming storytelling, and charismatic performances by Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. It wasn't quite like other science fiction shows of the time and stayed atypical from the rest on the marketplace for a good number of years after it finished. The same cannot be said about its 2022 revival of the same name, which sets to repackage the concept while acknowledging the original series.

2022's Quantum Leap feels like any other science fiction show for primetime television, with the same fast-paced, techno-jargon heavy, and flashy editing of any other program occupying similar space between 7 to 10pm at night. To make matters worse, the premiere establishes the premise and its cast of characters far too fast to really hook someone who is totally new to the intellectual property. The fast pacing of the storytelling ends up glossing over aspects which would be pretty engaging to the viewer, what you are left with is a string of things happening left to right without enough space to feel attached to. The visual effects, for the most part, are pretty poor - at one point in the premiere, when two characters interact in a moving car, you can clearly tell the actors are in front of a screen and can see their outlines very sharply. I acknowledge that the effects work in the original series wasn't of strong quality, either, but for its time it was living up to the bar with other shows, this new Quantum Leap doesn't have any excuses in 2022.

The cast are actually fine and charismatic, but there isn't enough substance for them to go off of and not enough room for them to make enough of an impact. I would say the two actors who made the most with what they were given were Ernie Hudson and Mason Alexander Park.

I think Scott Bakula made the right call to reject the offer for his character to appear, in contemporary Hollywood where so many iconic male characters are frequently being deconstructed he probably saw the writing on the wall and kindly refused, so far his character is only mentioned in conversation and nothing else - I would be nervous to find out what this new batch of creatives might have had in mind if Bakula accepted their offer.

I watched the first two episodes (the second one only because Beth Calavicci was in it) and to say I'm underwhelmed by it is an understatement and I think I understand why Scott Bakula doesn't want anything to do with it.

They removed everything about the original series from it to make it into a series without substance. They barely give you any reason to care about Ben & no reason to care about the people he's helping. The original series did that. You grew to care about the people that Sam was helping in the episode & not just Sam himself. Instead they decided that they needed to make it into a flat action adventure series. There's also way too much split focus, going between Ben trying to help people back to the project isn't needed. This is a case where telling the viewers that the team was working on trying to fix the problems with Ziggy & figuring out a way to get Sam back was better than showing us what they're doing in the present to get Ben back. What is the point of making the team suspicious of Ben & his motivations? Why did they think they needed a mystery about Al's daughter?

If you want a good time traveling TV series with good storytelling, watch the original. If you want a forgettable action adventure series with an element of time travel watch this I guess.

It's a fun thing to watch if you don't want anything that requires thinking. Acting is pretty decent but there are some things that I simply find annoying. Particularly the very obvious messaging in the show. I'm a fairly liberal person and I appreciate wide range of diversity in casting but the fact that there always needs to be a small lesson on gender identity is super old and tiring and NOT an effective means of changing hearts and minds. There are other ways to send that those same messages without having the dialogue come across like it's for a kids show. Having such messaging so on the nose will instantly cause half the audience to check out and feel like an ideology is being "crammed down their throats," while a more subtle approach could allow those same viewers to be more receptive.

What happend with the intro music! What happend with Ziggy (i want to hear that computer). What happend with the original humor.

I will continue to look a glimpse of nostalgia and will give it a chance! If they ruin it, i will lower my score. I hope producers and writers could read this humble feedback.

We all want more, like Cobra kai did with Karate Kid, they caught the essence of the show. Sorry for my rusty english.

An appereance of Scott Bakula would be awesome!!!! I see potential, but you have to give a little of quantum leap old school for the followers of the original show!

Thanks!!!!!